A lifelong New Yorker, I was born in 1955, so I'm just a little too young to remember the Dodgers and the Giants in New York, but my father was a die-hard Giants fan and he worshipped at the alter of Willie Mays. So, when I was six and began paying attention to baseball (and when I began collecting baseball cards), I was a Giants fan too.
Rooting for the Yankees was never an option.
The following year, the Mets came along, and I began to drift in their direction. My father compromised by taking me to Mets games when the Giants were in town. He didn't fully convert until 1972 - when Willie Mays was traded to the Mets.
Long-distance relationships are so complicated.
Alan Kleinberger